


Paradigm Shift

by SophieRipley



Series: Sweetly United [4]
Category: Zootopia (2016)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Drama, F/M, Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-04
Updated: 2017-04-11
Packaged: 2018-10-14 18:36:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10542210
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SophieRipley/pseuds/SophieRipley
Summary: More than three years after marrying Nick Wilde and learning they can never have children, Judy finds out she's pregnant.





	1. Chapter 1

Judy had been married to Nick for three and a half years; _happily_ married, thank you very much.  And in that time she’d been ill precisely twice.

Make that three times.

Their usual morning routine of hot beverages and cheerful (or not) banter was interrupted by Judy’s groan of displeasure as her guts twisted unpleasantly while weighing herself.  She took a deep, slow breath to steady herself.  Nick noticed and looked up from the mirror where he was tying his uniform tie.

“Gain some weight?” Nick tried to snark at her but his disgruntlement at being awake colored it slightly leading Judy to glare at him.  “Told you not to eat that donut last night.”

“Yes, Nick dear, I gained weight,” snapped Judy.  “Nearly half a pound since last week.  I’m also really nauseous, so I may need to skive off work and see my doctor.”

“Just over some nausea?”  Nick frowned.  “Little overzealous there aren’t you?”

Judy rolled her eyes and stifled an irritated sigh.  “Rabbits can’t vomit, Nick.  If I’ve got something in me that needs to come out, I need to see the doctor.  I knew I shouldn’t have eaten that casserole last night.”

“I ate it too, Carrots, and I’m fine.  You want me to go ahead and leave, or you wanna give it a minute?”

Judy shook her head.  “Just go, I’ll text you either way.”

Nick nodded, ducked to kiss her briefly, and left.   Only moments after he went, the nausea went too, as suddenly and inexplicably as it came.  Judy began typing out a text to Nick letting him know she was on the way to work when she thought about something.  Over the last week she’d been irritable; she’d gained weight, and now she thought about it she’d also been low on energy, getting tired more quickly than normal.

She backtracked in her text to tell Nick to let Bogo know she’d be late.

Forty-five minutes later, half an hour late, Judy came into the precinct to start her day.  Due to her tardiness she’d been separated from Nick for the day and so she spent a twelve hour shift giving out parking tickets in downtown.  It was an interesting experience for her, as it always was.  All uniformed police officers were required to do parking duty in regular intervals and when she did hers she noticed that there was a definite boon to being known by many citizens of Zootopia:  she got less abuse and fewer loud complaints by the mammals who she ticketed.

It helped her mood, but she was still silent as the proverbial grave as Nick drove them back home after their shift.

Nick was a good husband, she thought.  When she became quiet or sullen he seemed to have an unspoken understanding that she needed some time and would speak when she was ready; as such, he was equally quiet the whole ride, though he did offer his paw to her part way through the drive.  She took the offered paw, but didn’t speak until they got into their apartment.

They entered, Nick first and then Judy, and Nick dropped the car keys into the dish next to the door while Judy closed and locked the door.  Then they silently went to the bedroom and changed out of their uniforms:  Nick into a comfortable pair of shorts and a tee shirt, and Judy into a loose skirt and half-sleeve blouse.

Finally the silence was broken as Nick wandered toward the kitchen.  “Are you hungry, or should I wait to cook until we talk?”  His tone was level, not accusatory whatsoever.

Judy took a deep breath and let it out carefully.  “Better wait.”

He nodded and went around to sit on the opposite end of the green corduroy couch from Judy, turned to face her.  It was their ritual:  sit next to each other but separated, so that the implied solidarity of nearness could balance the potential need for space.

She turned in her seat to face him, staring down at her paws clasped in her lap.  “You know how three years ago after we married we saw a doctor and they said there was no possible way for us to have our own children?”

“Mhmm.” Nick cleared his throat.  “As I recall, we both had mixed feelings.  No chance of an unexpected kid, we can focus on our careers, and when we’re ready we can adopt.  But we both wanted children eventually.”

Judy looked up and met his eyes.  He was curious but guarded, and looked concerned.  “I’m uh….”  She took a breath and then softly spoke, her nerves and upset clear in her voice.  “I’m pregnant, Nick.”

Some distant part of her mind, a part that wasn’t dripping with anger and confusion and sorrow, noticed with some interest how Nick froze, then poorly concealed the fury that passed through him behind a mask of enforced benefit of the doubt. 

He swallowed, opened his mouth to speak, then swallowed again.  “I-uh…A-are you sure?”

Judy pulled an object from her handbag and passed it to him:  the positive pregnancy test she took that morning before work.  He stared at it for a long minute, a battle clear on his face, and then at last he tossed it on the coffee table and clenched his paws into fists.

“Who’s the father?”  His voice was remarkably calm and steady, but he refused to look at her as he said it.

“I don’t know,” said Judy with misery. Nick’s head snapped up to glare at her with offended incredulity, and she raised her paws to forestall what he was going to say.  “It’s not like _that_ , Nick, I promise!  I don’t know because I haven’t _been_ with anyone else!  I haven’t even been _drunk_ since our anniversary party six months ago.”

“Then how are you _pregnant,_ Judy?!” snarled Nick.  “It’s not like Fertility came down and blessed you with immaculate conception!”

“I _don’t know_!” cried Judy, throwing her paws out in frustration.  “Okay?!  Sometime in the last week, at most, I was assaulted.  I don’t remember it, so I don’t know what to tell you.  Okay?”

Nick looked at her, his expression again guarded, and Judy sighed deeply again.  “You’re angry, I get it.  I would be too.  But Nick, how do you think I feel?  I don’t remember having sex with anyone but _you_.  _Ever_.”

They silently stared at one another for a long moment before Nick looked away.  “Six days ago you were at that party of Fangmeyer’s overnight.  You said she invited a few other rabbits.  It had to have happened then; tomorrow, I’ll ask her for their names.  You can see Bogo about maternity leave.”

Judy gave him a confused look.  “Maternity leave?  You don’t honestly think—“

“That if you aborted you’d hate yourself for the next ten years?  Yes, I do.”  Nick stood and grabbed his wallet and phone from the table.

“Oh.”  Judy frowned; she hadn’t thought about that.  “You’re…you’re right, actually….”

“Give it a day or two before you make that decision.  Talk to your doctor tomorrow after you see Bogo.  Discuss your options with him, then we’ll talk about it.  I’ll see you tomorrow.”  He headed for the door.

“Wait, where are you going?”  Judy stood to follow, but his glance back at her made her stop in her tracks.

“Wolfard’s place, Judy.  My wife is pregnant and it’s medically impossible that it’s mine.  I need to decompress for at least tonight, _away from you_.”  Then he was gone, leaving her alone in an apartment that suddenly felt simultaneously far too big and way too small for her.

She dragged a blanket from the bed and wrapped herself in it on the couch and slept fitfully there, unable to face the bed without her husband in it.

* * *

 

Wolfard answered the knock at his door in only his boxer shorts, and raised an eyebrow at Nick.  “Hey short stuff,” said the wolf deadpan, “what’s cookin’?”

“Had an argument, need some space.  Can I borrow your couch?”  Nick brushed past the wolf into his living room.  Wolfard had a small but nicely furnished house out in Tundratown with lots of windows, and his couch—what Nick liked to refer to ominously as The Sofa—was a black nylon sectional that Nick insisted was made by the Gods themselves.  It was this couch Nick sprawled on without waiting for permission.

Wolfard followed and sat next to him, picking up the Xbox controller he’d set on the table to turn the game off.  “Sure thing.  Thierry is at a convention for next four days, so it’s just me here.  Be nice to have some company while he’s gone.”  Wolfard set the controller aside and went to the kitchen.

Thierry was another wolf, and a minor television celebrity. He and Wolfard had been together as long as Nick had known the officer, and Nick thought he was a nice guy…if a little aloof.

“So what happened, leave the toilet seat up?”  Wolfard came back into the room and handed Nick a beer.  Nick took it gratefully and popped it open before replying.

“Well,” drawled Nick after a minute, “Judy is pregnant.”

Wolfard frowned at him.  “Is that even possible?”

“Nope.  Hence the argument.  You know me, man.  My first thought was that she cheated on me.  And I reacted with that in mind.”  Nick took a drink from the beer.

“That’s rough,” replied Wolfard lightly.  “But she didn’t cheat on you.”

Nick looked at him incredulously.  “How would you know?”

Wolfard grinned.  “Remember after you two married how I told you I wanted to have a round with her myself?”

“Sure,” snorted Nick with a wry grin.  “I told you you’re welcome to try.  If you can do it for her _and_ convince her to cheat on me, you deserve it.”  He’d told Judy about the exchange later that day, and Judy had been amused by it.

“Yep.”  Wolfard grabbed Nick’s beer and took a swallow before passing it back.  “Well, I tried.  More than once.”

“Oh really?”  Nick turned to look at the wolf more directly.

“Sure.” Wolfard put his feet on his coffee table.  “Last time was oh…four months ago or so?  She laughed at me.  Told me, ‘Marcus, you know I love you, and if I were ever to be with anyone but Nick you’re on top of the list.  But it’s not happening.’  So like I said, she didn’t cheat on you.”

“Hmm.”  Nick slouched back into the couch again.  He was still angry, still tempted to believe Judy had simply betrayed him, but Wolfard’s implication was right:  Judy was the most loyal mammal he’d ever met.  If she wanted someone else, she’d have come to him first, at the very least.

Wolfard sighed, and when he spoke it was much subdued.  “So…looks like we have to investigate, huh?  Find out who did that to her.”

Nick nodded.  “Yeah.  Looks like.”  He stretched, then stood and wandered into Wolfard’s kitchen to ransack his fridge.

Nick arrived at work bright and not-quite-early the next morning with the wolf who was as cheerful in the morning as Judy tended to be.  He was dressed in his spare uniform, generally kept at Wolfard’s because there was a time he’d worked with the wolf on cases deep into the nights, and he carried an extra strong coffee.

“And when I went in, he had to come with.  You know how kids are—“ Wolfard was saying.

“Wolfard, buddy,” interrupted Nick, “your boyfriend must have the patience of a saint, dealing with that energy first thing in the morning.”

Wolfard grinned at him.  “You’re just pissed you had to have the couch instead of cuddling with me last night.”

Nick scoffed.  “That couch is comfy as hell, I’d take it over you any day.”

“Oh, you wound me,” chuckled Wolfard.  He opened his mouth to continue but a shout from Bogo interrupted him.

“ _HOPPS,_ ” shouted the buffalo, “ _MY OFFICE._ ” 

Wolfard cringed.  “You haven’t even been here a full minute, what did you do?”

Nick shrugged, and ambled up the stairs to Bogo’s office.  He entered with a  light knock to find Bogo sitting at his desk looking at some files. 

“Close the door,” he said without looking up.  Nick did, then approached the desk, hopping up on one of the chairs.  Bogo continued without looking up.  “I’ve reviewed your request, and I’ll put it through with one condition.”  He looked up, frowned at Nick, and snorted in irritation.  “Wilde, what the devil are you doing in my office?”

Nick cracked a smile.  “I’ve been Nick ‘Hopps’ for more than three years, sir.  You _did_ attend our wedding.  You even cri—“

“Finish that statement,” interrupted Bogo, “and you’ll be on parking duty until you retire.  As it happens, I needed you in here eventually anyway.  Hopps was—.”  He sighed.  “Your _wife_ , the _rabbit_ , was in here early this morning asking for maternity leave.  You are able to claim paternity leave alongside her if you so choose, and Nick…don’t you leave her to handle that alone.”  His last statement was a warning if Nick had ever heard one.

“You got it, Chief.”  Nick smoothed his uniform, and cleared his throat.  “We’re uh…we think Judy might have been attacked at some point and….”

Bogo nodded.  “Hopps— _Officer Wilde,_ Fortitude help me, mentioned that.  I advised her to talk to her doctor about getting fetal DNA samples so we can run them at the lab.  I’ll be speaking to Fangmeyer myself, and the investigation will be run by me.”

Nick sighed and nodded in gratitude.  If anyone was heading the investigation whose name wasn’t Nick, Nick was glad it was Bogo.  The buffalo was the best detective in the precinct, as evidenced by his position. 

“Thank you, sir.”

“Of course.  Get out of my office, and send in your wife.”

Nick hopped off the overlarge chair and stepped into the hall where he found Judy leaning on the wall opposite.  She smirked at him as he approached.

“He got the wrong name again, didn’t he?”  When Nick nodded with a smirk of his own, she chuckled.  Then her smirk faded and she looked seriously at Nick.  “Are…we okay, Nick?”

Nick put his paws in his pockets and took a deep breath, blowing it out through his teeth slowly.  “Yeah.  Wolfard and I talked it through last night.  I’m sorry for being so angry.”

Judy shook her head.  “Don’t be.  I understood.  Did Bogo tell you…?”

“Maternity leave,” nodded Nick.  “And paternity leave, apparently with a condition.”

“Yeah,” said Judy rolling her eyes, “he wants us to start our leave _today_.  Not next week.  ‘Rabbit pregnancies only last a _month_ , you’re already pushing it,’ he said.  That buffalo worries about me more than my own mother.”

“He’s not the only one.”  Nick pressed a light kiss to her forehead, then started walking away.  “I’ll go get the paperwork started and then we can go to the doctor.”

* * *

 

Judy’s doctor, a hare named Dr. Oswald, looked at the chart and clucked lightly.  “You’re in good shape, Judy.  Your blood test shows a few odd results, but nothing alarming at all.  I understand you want a fetal DNA sample, which we can do right now if you like, all it requires is a blood draw from you.  We can run the test here and then send the result to the ZPD.”

Judy nodded and squeezed Nick’s paw.  They were in the clinic a day after their conversations with Bogo, and it was gratifying to hear nothing was wrong.  “And my pelvic exam…?”

“Showed nothing unusual,” replied the doctor.  He glanced sideways at Nick.  “Your husband has left bruising and stretching from tying with you so often, but you know that already.  Your sex life is rough, Judy, you know I’ve always had reservations about that.”

“And you know,” said Judy carefully, “that as long as my _husband_ isn’t hurting me there’s no reason to change.”

Dr. Oswald smiled good-naturedly at the old debate.  “Naturally.  _However_ …”  He leveled a serious look at them both.  “You can still have sex.  But nothing rough, and _absolutely_ no _knotting_.  Not until after you recover from childbirth.  You could harm the fetuses.”

Nick tilted his head.  “Plural?  I thought rabbit pregnancies only rarely had more than one kit nowadays.”

“Plural, yes,” said the doctor.  “I don’t know for _sure_ yet, I’m only judging from some test results, hormone levels and such.  We’ll know in two days when you come back for an ultrasound.  Sound good?”  When the couple nodded, the doctor snapped the folder with Judy’s information closed.  “Good.  I’ll have the nurse take that sample and we’ll fax it over to Bogo as soon as it comes through.”

They got a call from Bogo late the following evening asking them to come to the station.  They of course rushed over and met Bogo in his office.

The buffalo held a page in one hoof.  “I have the results of your paternity test here, and the mammal who impregnated you is in the system.  Do you want to press charges?”

“ _Yes_ ,” said the rabbit and fox together, with no hesitation.

Bogo smiled.  “I’m so glad you said that.  Nicholas Hopps, you’re under arrest.”

The silence was deafening and lasted for nearly a full minute as Nick blinked stupidly at Bogo, and Bogo grinned savagely at Nick, and Judy looked lost between the two. 

“Wh-I-u-y,” stammered Nick brilliantly.

“B-I ju-sa-do wha,” complained Judy.

Bogo started laughing and passed the test results over.  While the Chief struggled to breathe through his mirth, they looked at the results together.

Then, they looked at each other, gaping.

“You’re the father,” breathed Judy in shock.

“I’m gonna be a dad,” breathed Nick back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This has been on my mind for awhile, and I've finally gotten to it. Thanks to AeonFeral for helping me flesh it out awhile back and providing the enthusiasm that pushed me to do it.
> 
> So! There will be probably one more chapter after this. I don't anticipate a third, though it could happen. Please don't hesitate to comment!
> 
> EDIT: Forgot to add, the Bogo/name trouble gag here is thanks to reader MentalAdventurer, who suggested it would be humorous after the wedding chapter.


	2. Chapter 2

Judy was forty-five days pregnant, belly very round indeed, and according to all of her friends and most of her family she was beautiful. 

She was also angry.

Judy slapped Nick’s paws and pushed him away from her.  “Nicholas, Serendipity help me, I’m not an _invalid_.  I can stand up on my _own_ , damn you!” 

Nick looked down at her with a petulant frown and crossed his arms.  “Okay, genius,” snapped Nick, “stand up on your own.”

Judy glared up at him from the armchair—a very soft, very comfortable chair to be sure—and sat forward to push herself out of the chair.  She didn’t get far, however, what with the soft chair swallowing her like a predator and her belly getting in the way.  She tried again and failed again, then tried dragging herself off the chair via chair arm, and that didn’t work because she couldn’t reach the end of the arm of the chair, nestled into the back of it as she was.

She glared back up at Nick.  “Okay, fine, I need your help.  Happy?”

Nick didn’t look impressed.  “No.  I think I deserve an apology.  You’ve been at my throat all day and all I’ve done is care.”

They held an impromptu glaring contest then, which Nick won after nearly thirty seconds.  Judy blinked, looked away, and crossed her arms.  “…fine.  I may have been a little bit moody today and snapped at you a few times more than I should have.”

“That’s it?  That’s your apology?”

Judy turned back to him to glare again.  “Don’t push your luck, it’s all you’re getting.”

Nick rolled his eyes, then reached over and picked Judy up by the back of her shirt.  As she was lifted into the air, her limbs automatically drew up toward her body, and she looked up at Nick with a new glare. 

“Okay, now put me down so we can go eat.”

Nick smiled sweetly at her.  “No.”  He carried her like that out of Judy’s parents’ greatroom and down the hall into the smaller dining room, which was nonetheless massive in Nick’s opinion.  He didn’t set her down until they reached the long table at the head of the room that bore the food and drinks. 

Once back on her feet, Judy straightened her shirt then looked at the crowd of bunnies, most of whom had already gotten food and some of whom were still loading plates.   Most of them were staring at her and Nick with some level of humor.

“Great, everyone’s laughing at me.  Thanks a lot Nick.”  She grabbed a plate and started getting food in front of Nick. 

“Nobody is laughing at you,” retorted Nick.  “Bill is the only one who’s laughing and he finds everything funny.  No wait, that’s Harold.  Bill is the one with the lip piercing.”

“Greg,” growled Judy.  “Greg is laughing.  Harold is the one that always wears that flower crown thing.”

“Yeah, Greg!  You have too many family members.”  They sat across from Bonnie and Stu and next to Samantha.  Judy began eating without another word, and Nick glanced over at Sam.  The lines marking her cheek and jaw were very visible, the fur there still growing back in from being shaved away before she was stitched up.  The white and black bunny looked back up at Nick impassively.

“What?”  She popped a strawberry in her mouth and held his gaze.

Nick shook his head.  “Haven’t seen you in a few days, is all.”  He turned back to his plate, laden with fruit and a veggie lasagna Bonnie had learned the recipe of from his mother.  He and Judy had been in Bunnyburrow for two weeks, invited by Bonnie.  Judy decided to go partly because she was an emotional being and wanted to see her family and partly because she rather wanted their family doctor to deliver her babies.  Doctor Jeremy Valiant, an old hare, had been the Hopps family doctor since Bonnie and Stu were kids, and had personally delivered and cared for every one of Judy’s siblings, nieces, and nephews.  It was something of a tradition for new Hopps children to be delivered by him, a tradition she was more than willing to follow.

Rabbit pregnancies only last about a month, usually, but Judy’s normal doctor informed them three weeks ago that it probably would take longer than that.  It was impossible, he’d said, to know for sure how long the pregnancy would take but he’d used the development speed to that point to estimate that it’d probably be around a month and a half total.

This meant, of course, that Judy could go into labor any day now.  Her size and irritability seemed to confirm this idea.

“I wish there was chicken,” muttered Judy around a mouthful of lasagna. 

Bonnie looked up from her own plate and chuckled at her.  “Well, at least we know the kits are Nick’s.  You’re still craving meat?”

“Ugh, yes,” said Judy.  “It’s so gross.”

“Says the one who ate two whole chicken breasts last weekend for a _snack_ ,” said Nick dryly.  “Besides, you’ve eaten chicken before getting pregnant and you thought it was fine.”

“…shut up, you,” replied Judy with a thrown elbow. She was met with a very foxy grin, at which she rolled her eyes.

“What are you going to do about work?” asked Bonnie.  “Take alternating shifts?”

Judy nodded.  “That’s what I was thinking, sure.  Or maybe get Skye to do some babysitting during the day.  She and Jack would love that, I think.”

“Actually,” said Nick, setting his fork aside, “I’ve been thinking about that.  Getting my parents to babysit is an idea, but…I’ve thought about resigning from the force.  Become a stay-at-home dad.”

“No!” exclaimed Judy.  “You can’t do that!  You love being a police officer!  Besides, we can’t raise a family on one cop’s salary, Nick.”

Nick shook his head.   “I like the job, but I took the job to begin with to be closer to you anyway.  Besides, money isn’t an issue.”

“How do you figure?” asked Judy, narrowing her eyes.

Nick sighed.  “I have a bank account with seven digits.  I was very good at what I did before we met, and a lot of what I made went into investments.  It’s all legal, I sat down with a tax guy after I started on the force and got all my back taxes paid off and everything.”

Judy’s eyes narrowed further.  “When did you plan to tell your _wife_ about all this money?”

Nick shrugged uncomfortably, aware of all the eyes on him.  “A month and a half ago. I was going to surprise you with a very fancy and very expensive dinner, and lay out the whole thing.  Tell you all about how I was afraid to tell you and how it was the last secret I had and it felt weird letting go of it.  I should have told you when we married, but it wasn’t important.  I use it only when I need to, so it never came up.  I was going to tell you a month and a half ago, but the day before I planned to do it you told me you were pregnant.  It hadn’t seemed like a good time since.”

Judy sat in silence for a moment, processing it.  “…well, we’re going to have an argument about this later, Nick.  And you’re buying me that Furrari I want, to make up for it.  But you’re not quitting the force.  We’ve come too far for you to just walk away.  You know Skye will end up being over the whole time I’m at work most days anyway, so you might as well keep your job.”

“…I suppose.”  Nick nodded.  “You’re right, Mom is going to be there all the time when the kits come.  We’ve still got seven weeks of parental leave at work and you know Bogo will make us take the whole seven weeks.  We can use that to get settled and get a routine going, and we haven’t taken our vacation days this year yet so we have that too if we need it.”

It was silent at the table for a couple minutes.  “So,” said Stu, breaking the awkward silence, “have you talked about names?”

Nick nodded.  “The doc says we have three, so we’ve got to come up with three good names.  We’ve mentioned it, but we haven’t really decided on anything for sure yet.”

“Better hurry up,” said Sam, “you’re running out of time to decide.”

The moment the words left Sam’s mouth Judy inhaled sharply. She closed her eyes and took a slow breath, then let it out with a quiet groan.

“You okay there, Carrots?” asked Nick.

Judy shook her head.  “Nope.  Call Doc Valiant.”

Nick frowned in confusion.  “Huh?”

“Call _the doctor,_ Nick!” snapped Judy.

“Oh Serendipity, the babies are coming!”  Bonnie stood sharply.  “I’ll call.  Nick, get her and go.  We’ll meet you there later.”

“Oh,” said Nick.  Then it hit him.  “ _Oh._   Oh Karma, oh boy, this is happening.”  He stood and picked up Judy, rushing out to their car and strapping Judy into the passenger seat. 

As Nick was pulling out of the Hopps property, Judy glanced over at him.  “Nick.”

“Yeah.”

“If you drive the speed limit I’m kicking you in the nose.”

He took the threat literally and floored it. 

The doctor met them in the parking lot of the hospital, and escorted them inside where a gurney and several nurses waited for her.

The doctor, a tall brown hare with gold eyes, took charge immediately.  “Get her situated and ready in the delivery room, I’ll scrub up and be there directly.  Judy, how are you feeling?”

“I’m in a fair amount of pain,” said Judy through clenched teeth.  “But other than that I’m just _peachy_.”

“Good girl.  Keep that fire, it’ll help.  I’ll be right back.”  He went one way, Judy and the nurses went another, and Nick followed the latter group all the way to the doors of the delivery room.

That’s where they encountered a problem.  The larger of the nurses, a ram, turned on Nick as Judy was wheeled inside.  “No predators in the delivery room,” he said calmly, then he turned to go into the room himself.

Nick moved to brush by him anyway.  “I’m the father,” said Nick absently, most of his attention focused on Judy and the other nurse talking to her.

“No you’re not,” said the ram, putting a hoof on Nick’s chest, pushing him to a halt.  “You’re a predator, and you’re unwelcome in this delivery room.”

Nick’s eyes widened and he looked at the ram incredulously.  “I have DNA test results that say I _am_ the father of her kits, so _get out of my way_.”

“Look, fox, Fertility Herself could tell me you’re the father and I still wouldn’t believe that.  I’m not going to let you in this room.  It’s the law:  no predators in a prey delivery room.  Period.  Do not make me get security in here.”

Judy finally caught onto the problem.  “Hey,” called Judy, “that’s my husband.  If you don’t let him in this room _right now_ , I swear to all the gods there are that _I will bite the hell out of you._ ”

“Don’t worry, miss,” said the ram as he closed the door in Nick’s face, “we’ll make sure you’re safe and taken care of.” 

A moment later, Nick heard the ram yell, then the doors slammed open and the ram came back out with what looked like a very bad bite in his arm.  He didn’t even look at Nick as he fled down the hall, presumably to find treatment.

Nick walked into the delivery room to find the other nurse, a rabbit, staring at Nick with wide eyes.  “S-she _bit him_.”

“She also warned him she would,” said Nick coldly.  “Now would you mind taking care of my wife while we wait for Bigot McSpeciesist’s replacement?” 

The nurse blinked at him in shock for another moment, then turned and got back to work.

When the doctor came in, scrubs on and freshly washed and gloved paws ready to start, he barely gave Nick a second look. 

“Judy, sweetie,” said the doctor, “did you bite your tongue?  You have blood in your mouth.”

The nurse answered for her.  “Bob wouldn’t let the fox in so she bit him really bad.”

“Ah.  Well, we’ll get some water for you to get that out of your mouth.  I asked Jane to give us a hand so she’s on her way.  We ready to get started?  How are you feeling, Judy?”

The next seven hours for Nick were spent saying mindless platitudes to Judy while the bunny crushed his paw into a pulp.  And when it was over the bunny nurse named Beatrice and the nurse named Jane, who was a very attractive swift fox, presented their kits:  two girls and a boy, all tiny but bigger than typical bunny kits and all still wet from the birthing process. 

The doctor, having stripped his gloves off, came over to the couple.  “Your doctor in Zootopia has been in contact with me; he and his colleagues want to study the kits, as well as your DNA profiles, to determine how this is possible and how your children will develop.  I’ve looked at the literature and there’s no record of cross-order hybrids;  congratulations, Mrs. Wilde, Mr. Hopps.  You’ve caused a complete paradigm shift in the medical community.  You’re a miracle couple.”

“What kind of studies?” asked Nick.

“My kits aren’t getting poked and prodded in a laboratory their whole lives like some science experiment,” said Judy.

“Not at all,” replied the doctor.  “We’ll start with MRI scans to make sure their musculature and neural development is all healthy.  After that, the plan is to do non-invasive tests as they grow, whenever they come into the clinic in Zootopia for standard checkups.  I want you to see your doctor every week for the next couple months, though, to make sure they’re developing okay.  Even with species-level hybrids birth defects and other developmental issues can be common.”

Judy nodded, then looked at Nick.  Nick shrugged and looked at the doctor.  “As long as they’re treated like people.”

“Naturally,” said the doctor with a nod.  “Judy, it was a pleasure to be part of this.  Thank you.  You’ve had a very trying night, that was one of the more difficult deliveries I’ve seen.  But there wasn’t any tearing at all, which is surprising.”

Judy nodded tiredly.  “Yeah, not that surprising.  I’ve taken a knot the size of a grapefruit every day since I married.  Well…until I got pregnant, anyway.  A baby is nothing.”

Nick scoffed.  “Grapefruit.  You’re exaggerating, Fluff.”

“…shut up, you,” muttered Judy with a grin.  She looked back down at her babies.  “They’re beautiful.”

“They’ll look even better when I return them to you,” said the doctor.  “We’d like to take their measurements and run them through an MRI.”

“Of course,” said Judy.  “Do what you need to.”

“I’ll have you moved to a room and let you get some rest.  You’ve had a long day.  We’ll see you again before you leave, Judy.  Nick.”  The doctor took the nurses aside for a moment to give them instructions, then he and the rabbit nurse left with their kits.

Jane got them moved to a room, and once they were situated, she addressed them both.  “Once I get the measurements I’ll be back with the birth certificate worksheets.  If you haven’t yet, you’ll want to decide on names.  If you need anything at all, just hit the button there and I’ll be here immediately.”

Once she left, Judy looked at Nick.  “She was cute.”

Nick shrugged.  “Sure, I mean, a little.  I guess.”

Judy chuckled.  “You know I don’t mind you looking at other females, Nick.”

Nick raised an eyebrow.  “Earlier, you were mad at me for offering to help you out of a chair.”

“…good point.  So names.  What do you think?”

“Sam,” said Nick immediately.  “One of the girls should be named Samantha.”

Judy considered it.  “Samantha Bonita Wilde-Hopps?”

“Your mom will love it.”  Nick dragged a chair over to the bedside.

“So will Sam.  The other girl is River.”

“…River?  Like the body of water?” asked Nick, confused.

Judy shook her head.  “No.  River, like the character from that time travel show.  River Skylar Wilde-Hopps.”

Nick chuckled.  “Skylar.  Mom will appreciate that.  And the boy?”

“Nicholas,” said Judy without hesitation.  “After his father.”

“Nicholas Judas,” corrected Nick.  “After _both_ his parents.”

Judy smiled as she laid her head back.  “I like the sound of that.”  She slept, and Nick slept with her, his head against her hip on the bed next to her.

* * *

 

Judy lay in a hospital bed, completely unmoving save the rise and fall of her chest as she breathed.  Next to her, Nick Hopps sat in a chair pulled up very close to her bed, and he gazed intently at her like she was a priceless artifact.

She had been asleep for a long time.

A mischievous grin crossed Nick’s face and he plucked a tissue from the box next to her bed, deftly rolling it up.  Then he reached out with the very end of the tissue where he’d left a delicate point, and brushed it ever so lightly along the line of her cute little nose.

It twitched.

Spurred by success, Nick repeated the action giggling to himself.  It twitched again.  A third time, and a forth he was met with success until finally Judy’s right paw, opposite Nick, came sailing across and smacked him across the snout with all the force of an angry bull.

Nick sat up abruptly, his paws clutching his nose and eyes watering, the tissue falling to the bed beside Judy, who was now glaring so hard at him it was a wonder he didn’t combust.

“What is your problem, Nicholas Hopps?!” she snarled, the exclamation rendered slightly less effective thanks to the sleep smearing it.

His response to her was muffled by the paws around his muzzle, and she glared at him until he lowered his paws.  Before repeating himself, he checked to make sure he didn’t have a nose bleed.  Fortunately, he did not.

“I was bored.”  Nick smiled unapologetically at her.  “And your nose is cute.”

“You may be my husband, Nick, but call me cute again and you’ll be in the bed next to me.”  Judy used the control on her bed to raise it to a seated position, then adjusted her position.  “Serendipity above, Nick, I’m tired.  I just had three babies.  You couldn’t let me sleep for one hour while you were bored?  You could have gone and flirted with that nurse that set me up in here, she was nice.  You thought she was attractive.”

Nick smiled a loving grin at his grumpy wife.  “Yeah,” he said, “but she went off duty an hour ago.  You’ve been asleep for ten hours, bun.”

She sat up straighter.  “Ten hours?  What?!  Why didn’t you wake me sooner??”

“Calm down, sweetheart,” said Nick, making placating motions with his paws.  “You needed the rest.  And we’ve been handling the babies.  Gran-mama Bonnie is out with the doctor now, in fact, they wanted to take the kits back for a couple routine tests.”

Judy sighed.  She was clearly still grumpy, but she grabbed Nick’s paw in hers and held tightly.  “Are our babies okay, Nick?”

“They’re the healthiest fox bunny hybrids around, don’t you worry.”

“…they’re the only fox bunny hybrids, Nick.”

Nick grinned.  “Yeah, but they’re healthy is my point, Fluff.  They’re related to you, how can they not be?”

Judy settled back on the bed and Nick could see some of the tension leave her.  “They’ll be okay.”

“Better believe it.”  Nick stood.  “I’m going to see what your mom is up to.  Maybe they’ve brought our boxes back.”

He started walking across the hospital room, and was almost at the door before Judy understood what he was saying.  She grabbed the nearest object—a digital clock, and threw it at his back, missing spectacularly.  “Don’t call my babies boxes, you stupid fox!”

Nick laughed and was still laughing when he reached the hall where Bonnie and Doctor Valiant were talking.

“Mr. Hopps,” said Dr. Valiant.  “I was just discussing with Mrs. Hopps here that your kits seem to be in perfect health; we’ve taken the DNA samples, which we’ll send to some labs at the medical university in Zootopia, and we’ve done the MRI’s we spoke about.  All the parts seem to be in the right places, nothing is amiss so far.”

“Thank you, Doctor,” said Nick, crouching to get on-level with him.  “They’ll be alright, then?”

“More than alright,” replied Dr. Valiant, “if their parents are anything to go by.  In fact, I’m willing to discharge them and Mrs. Wilde first thing in the morning.  You’ll want to take the children in for some other tests in a week or so, of course, so make sure to schedule that with Dr. Oswald.” 

Nick nodded.  “Naturally.  We’ll take care of all that.”

Just then two nurses, rabbits both, came up bearing three little bundles.

The bigger nurse passed the two kits he held off to Bonnie, while the female passed hers off to Nick.

“They’re right as rain, Mr. Hopps,” said the male with a smile. 

The professionals dismissed themselves and Nick and Bonnie made their way back into the room, where Judy watched them expectantly.

“They’re just fine, hon-bun,” said Bonnie as she and Nick assembled the kits around Judy.

Judy gazed down at them with a soft expression.  They all had similar features:  elongated ears shaped like bunny ears but tapered to points at the top instead of rounded; short snouts that were more pronounced than Judy’s but smaller and more rounded than Nick’s, with bunny-like slit nostrils; lagomorph-like lower limbs built for power; retractable claws; tails half as long as a typical fox’s but shaped similarly; and a somewhat longer leaner frame than would be expected in a bunny.

The boy, Nicholas Judas, was the same soft grey as his mother with a little rusting around the edges, and green eyes like his father.  One girl, River Skylar, was a light brown reminiscent of Judy’s father Stu and with Stu’s brown eyes, but with a red hint to her fur; and the other girl, Samantha Bonita, was colored exactly like Nick, right down to the dark tip of her tail, only her eyes were the same brilliant purple of her mother’s.

“They have fur already,” whispered Judy reverently.  She hadn’t noticed that detail earlier, with how exhausted she had been. 

Nick sat gently on the bed and put an arm around his little family.  “Did we do good, Judy?”

While tickling little Sam with one paw, Judy grasped Nick’s paw with her other and squeezed.  “Yeah, Nick.  We did good.”

Bonnie quietly excused herself unnoticed, smiling as sweetly as her son-in-law

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two big notes here: First, I know very little about pregnancy or post-natal care or anything. So bear that in mind. Second: the last thousand words or so are basically my one shot _Family_ , but altered a little to fit this canon. So there's that.
> 
> I imagine I'll drop stories further in this timeline exploring the home life they have, but I have no concrete ideas on that at this time. 
> 
> As I noted in the author's note for _Family_ I took heavy inspiration on the hybrid appearance from the pokemon Umbreon. It's not a perfect match, but Umbreon will give you an idea of what they look like.
> 
> Also, credit for the "Nick is rich" headcanon to Zootopepo on tumblr. I got the idea from him.


End file.
